Is Australian democracy on the skids?

It's 10 years now since an Australian prime minister last served a full term in office. That's a pretty big change, given that for the 10 years before that, there was just the one guy. For the whole decade. For four elections.

That was back in the era where winning a second election, as prime minister, was viewed as something of a courtesy, something you got just for showing up.

But now, we're in much shallower and more turbulent waters.

About two years ago, Queensland paramedics stopped asking patients, "Who is the prime minister?" to establish their degree of mental acuity.

It was getting too difficult to distinguish between the genuinely befuddled and the geezer who simply hadn't caught the news that day.

Now they just go for, "What did you have for lunch?" instead.

Other things about our democracy have changed over that time, too; not just the drapes in the prime ministerial suite.

One of the most confronting changes is the level of faith Australians have in our democratic system.

Hovering optimistically at 85 per cent when John Howard lost office, it sank to 42 per cent in 2016.

That's a lot of faith to lose in a relatively short time.

Dissatisfaction all round

And it's not just a case of despising whoever's currently in charge.

When asked about the capacity of federal governments in general to address specific issues, respondents registered a fairly low expectation that any government — regardless of its hue — would be capable of solving much at all.

National security was the only area in which a majority of respondents thought, on balance, governments were effective.

Addressing climate change, by contrast, was something only 5 per cent of respondents were "very confident" governments could address, and 20 per cent "somewhat confident".

And indeed, while 10 years ago both major political parties went to the election promising an emissions trading scheme, climate policy has subsequently turned out to be the banana skin upon which each major party has in turn come a mighty cropper.

The near-accord on carbon pricing between prime minister Kevin Rudd and opposition leader Malcolm Turnbull, attempted in 2009, swiftly led to the defenestration of the second-named leader and then — a little later — the execution of the first.

The woman who took the leadership from Rudd was ultimately brought down by the man who took the leadership from Turnbull, who in turn was brought down by Turnbull who has so far resisted enthusiastic re-engagement with the matter of carbon pricing.

It's just one policy example, and an infamously tricky one at that.

But with this issue still hanging after a decade of false starts, and the Parliament today apparently intending to divide its attention, over the next few months, between asking Australians to write in voluntarily with their thoughts on the Marriage Act and hanging around outside the High Court till October to establish whether the Deputy Prime Minister was validly elected, now seems as good a time as any to ask whether Australian democracy is just in need of a decent service, or we have in some way written off the vehicle.

Look to the past

In these circumstances, when you do have surviving leaders from an earlier time, it's worth asking them.

Tonight, the Museum of Australian Democracy celebrates the 90th birthday of Old Parliament House by bringing back some of that building's fiercest protagonists.

John Howard and Bob Hawke — Australia's second- and third-longest serving prime ministers — will come together to talk about what's changed in our democracy in the years since they energetically opposed — but at some junctures supported — each other in office.